Explore "A Prospective Visit" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
While _any_ day was notable and dear / That gave the children Noey, history here / Records his advent emphasized indeed / With sharp italics, as he came to feed / The stock one special morning, fair and bright, / When Johnty and Bud met him, with delight / Unusual even as their extra dress -- / Garbed as for holiday, with much excess / Of proud self-consciousness and vain conceit / In their new finery. -- Far up the street / They called to Noey, as he came, that they, / As promised, both were going back that day / To _his_ house with him!
And by time that each / Had one of Noey's hands -- ceasing their speech / And coyly anxious, in their new attire, / To wake the comment of their mute desire, -- / Noey seemed rendered voiceless. Quite a while / They watched him furtively. -- He seemed to smile / As though he would conceal it; and they saw / Him look away, and his lips purse and draw / In curious, twitching spasms, as though he might / Be whispering, -- while in his eye the white / Predominated strangely. -- Then the spell / Gave way, and his pent speech burst audible: / "They wuz two stylish little boys, / and they wuz mighty bold ones, / Had two new pairs o' britches made / out o' their daddy's old ones!"